PDF Viewer in Android App

[Mike_Eovino]

First of all, thanks for creating the Android app and inviting me to the beta. I am really enjoying it.

The PDF viewer in the Android app does not seem to be able to zoom in and out on the PDF as it does in the iOS version of the app. I have a base which will be a repository of PDFs for people that will need to view these PDFs on mobile devices (both iOS and Android).

As a workaround, I’m sharing the PDFs with Google Drive and using the very good Drive viewer, but it’s an extra step I do not need to go through in the iOS app. A better viewer would be a huge improvement.

Keep up the great work!

Thanks,
Mike E.

[Patricia]

Hi Mike, thanks for the feedback. Definitely something we’ll work on. Native support for viewing PDFs in-app is a little shoddy (Android orthodoxy is to fire an intent and let whatever apps the user has on the phone already handle it), but we can definitely have a better experience in this area.

[Mike_Eovino]

Patricia - Thanks for getting back to me on this. Now that you mention it, I don’t know that I’ve seen an Android application open a PDF in-app. It certainly looks like many other devs are struggling with the same kinds of issues with PDFs.

Given that I’m saving the PDF to Drive and using the Drive viewer to view it, firing an intent and letting the file open in another app certainly isn’t any worse of a user experience. It’d save me a few clicks. I’d be interested to hear from other folks on the Android beta to give you some more feedback.

[Patricia]

Hi Mike, yeah, definitely. I think another user had the suggestion of showing a notification upon completion of file download that when tapped, fires said Intent. Seems similar to what you’re suggesting and will definitely save a few clicks.

[Mike_Eovino]

Cool. That would be wonderful. Looking forward to it.

[Debbie_Baird]

You can try to set the PDF to open at 100% by default.
You should go to Edit>Preferences>Page Display>Default Layout and Zoom.
Thus, it will to apply to all records each time you open any other document too.
But, if the person who created the document has set a higher zoom setting, Reader would keep on opening the record with a similar setting.